Welcome to the celebration!

It is an honor and a pleasure to have you with us. We pray that this Celebration will be a true blessing to you, to the great Bermuda Charities that are partnering with us, to our wonderfully generous Corporate Sponsors – and to all of our 6,000 guests. I’d like to extend a special welcome to our Honorary Chairs for this year’s event – two of whom (Congresswoman Diane Watson and Congressman GK Butterfield) are highly regarded members of the United States Congress and two of whom (Premier Ewart Brown and Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley) are Bermuda’s pre-eminent political leaders. It is wonderful to have them all with us – and it shows again the very close friendship that exists between our lands.

Any time you throw a party for almost 10% of a county’s population – you need a lot of help. So I’d like to specially thank each member of the Celebration Planning Committee. Our 35 Chairs and Vice-Chairs have worked very hard for many months on a volunteer basis to make this the best Fourth of July Celebration in Bermuda’s history. My personal and heartfelt “Thank You” to each of my fellow Chairs, and especially to Cindy Campbell, my Co-Chairman for this year’s Celebration, and to Brad Woodings, President of the American Society of Bermuda. It has been a real pleasure working together with them and with the entire Planning Committee.

This year’s July 4^th event is all about Celebrating Freedom and Giving Back to Bermuda.  These two ideals were key in planning an event that would allow Americans and Bermudians together to Celebrate Freedom – as our American forebears did on that original July 4th – and to use our freedom in aid of others as we hope to do today.  Giving Back to Bermuda is the goal of this Independence Day Celebration.

I want to personally express my sincere gratitude to each of our Corporate Sponsors for their support. They didn’t have to give. And, with the amount corporate Bermuda already gives to charities, they certainly did not have to give so generously.  But they did.  So many thanks to them all, with a special note of appreciation to our Premium and Gold Sponsors – whose support for this event exceeded all expectations. 

Our Corporate Sponsors have come through for Bermuda’s charities.  Now I appeal to each and every one of you, our guests, to accept the challenge yourselves.  As you enjoy the Celebration – please devote a few minutes to learn more about the outstanding Bermuda charities that are partnering with us this year. And please choose at least one of these great Charities – and “Celebrate” by helping them ‘Give Back’ to Bermuda.

Thank you again for joining us this evening – and have a great Celebration!!!

 

                                                                        Gregory W. Slayton
                                                                        US Chief of Mission and
                                                                        July 4^th Event Co-Chairman